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Weekly Report from the Board Meeting at Holman Prison 4.5.17

posted by PHADP
on Wed, 04/05/2017 - 05:43

Weekly Report from the Board Meeting at Holman Prison 4.5.17

We cannot say enough how encouraged and delighted we are about our partnership with the English Department of UNA. What an honor to be mentioned on their webpage! https://www.una.edu/english/prison-programming.html . We could not have imagined this in our wildest dreams and given the creative thinking and dedication to justice of Dr. Katie Owens-Murphy we believe this is only the beginning. We are very grateful for this gift of hope.

We received some heartfelt replies to our first piece of our Memoriam series. We so appreciate your insightful feedback. It encourages us to keep doing what we are trying to do which is to give a face to the death penalty.

Alabama’s recently appointed Attorney General Steven T. Marshall last week wrote an article “Could Gorsuch be the death penalty’s deciding vote?” The views voiced were as expected and conformed with those of Governor Bentley who had appointed him and with those of his predecessors. Fortunately we had had no expectations and were thus not too disappointed by the stand taken which will make sure that this state will continue to be “last in everything good”. Of course there is always Arkansas and we are horrified at the scheduled blood bath and would like to encourage all who read this to sign a petition which is to be presented to their Governor on Good Friday.

And finally here is the statement by Kimble Forrister of Alabama Arise after the House voted 78-19 for a bill to end judicial override yesterday:

“Judicial override is about to become a thing of the past, and Alabama’s justice system will be better as a result. It’s time for our state to put the sentencing decisions in death penalty cases where they belong: in the jury’s hands. We’re happy to see such strong support in the House and Senate for ending this outdated practice, and we hope the governor will sign it into law quickly.”

The legislation only affects future cases and not inmates currently on death row. It does not require a unanimous jury vote but leaves it at a 10-2 vote. A beginning?